Dear Readers,
I return to doing what I do best- sing eulogies to the desert! The months of March and April is the time when exams are held in all colleges and universities across India. In our university system, this time also brings with it hectic touring all around the Bikaner sub-division inspecting colleges that are affiliated to us. So, we go up north to the colonized settlements of IGNP canal or west to colleges bordering Pakistan or east to the horrifying desert of Churu(the place which records the highest and the lowest temperatures in north India). While travelling so, we encounter ebullient views that leave us spell-bound.
The other day, we were on our way to a place called Gharsana which lies on the ancient Bikaner-Pugal road a further way up ahead. After a drive of about a few minutes, we found ourselves traversing a grand desert which looked quite intimidating. Not a soul to be seen for miles and no hamlets or villages. We went past a village called Sattasar and started running parallel to the great Indira Gandhi canal(said to be one of the world's greatest irrigation projects). Right then, after a hair pin bend to the right, I saw lofty sand dunes standing on the banks of the canal looking down onto it with the grandiloquence of foresighted visionaries. I could not resist the kiddish temptation of climbing atop the faces of those grandfatherly figures in spite of chiding discouragement from my senior colleagues.
The view was soul-stirring. I found myself at the top of a knuckle-head sand-dune which afforded a 360 degree view of golden landscape dotted with greens and whites and blues quite alike the kundan jewelery of Bikaner that has earned global renown. For as far as the eyes could see, sand and only sand resembling waves of the deep ocean was visible. And....And in the middle if it all, the serpentine canal, flowing with the might of a perennial Himalayan river, meandered its way down. I pray to God that one fine day in winters, I could return to the same spot, sit there all alone and meditate for hours......
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